Built at Ashford as an "O" class locomotive, it received a rebuild to class
"O1" in 1908, and ran on until finally withdrawn in 1961. In 1963 it was
obtained by Mr Lewis-Evans and kept at Ashford Steam Centre until its
closure. Thereafter its location was something of a mystery until it was
brought to the Bluebell Railway for overhaul, and was returned to steam for
the centenary of the amalgamation of the SER and the LCDR in August 1999.

0-6-0s were the commonest locomotives in this country, and the Bluebell now
hosts a sequence of three unique survivors of this type, demonstrating their
development through the first half of the 20th century, from the O1 through
the SECR C-class to Maunsell's Q-class built by the
Southern Railway.

The Bluebell's spare O1/H boiler was overhauled at The Flour Mill workshop, and has now been fitted in place of its previous boiler during the recent overhaul, which took place at Sheffield Park.

Owner: The 73082 Camelot Locomotive Society Web Site and FacebookPhoto by courtesy of Hiroshi
Naito

"Camelot" was one of the Southern Region's allocation of Standard
5s, and when the King Arthur class, which they replaced, were
being withdrawn, a staff suggestion led to the names being transferred to
the new engines. Modern engines with roller bearings, highly capable and
easy to maintain, they were withdrawn long before they were worn out thanks
to BR's rush to get rid of steam in the 1960s.

A survivor of Barry Scrapyard, "Camelot" is the only remaining one of these
named Standard 5s. It was returned to working order thanks to the
dedication of the Camelot Society, which carried out fund-raising and
engineering work. The latter included the construction of a brand-new
tender body, fitted to frames recovered from a South Wales Ironworks,
since, like so many Barry locos, it had lost its tender. It was a
core member of the Bluebell's loco fleet for the decade after it returned to traffic in 1995.

In preparation for its recent overhaul, the Camelot Locomotive Society prepared the loco for the boiler lift, major work has been undertaken on the wheelsets and the roller-bearings, the boiler has received heavy repairs off-site, and the overhaul and painting was completed in October 2015.

To mark 60 years since 73082 was constructed at Derby in 1955, although relaunched complete with its nameplates at the Giants of Steam weekend in 2015, it is the owner's intention to run the loco for a period of time without nameplates, to mark this anniversary. Camelot received its nameplates at Eastleigh works in August 1959, whilst still carrying the early BR tender emblem.

Built as a basic goods engine to replace life-expired pre-grouping
locomotives, this was Maunsell's final design as Chief Mechanical Engineer
of the Southern Railway. It could be described as a competent though not
outstanding engine. Bulleid, Maunsell's successor, improved the draughting
arrangements with a multiple blast-pipe arrangement and new chimney, and it
was in this condition that 541 was withdrawn from service in 1964. Sent to
Barry scrapyard, like many other locos there it escaped the cutter's torch
and was bought by preservationists.

In 1973 it was moved to Ashchurch in Gloucestershire and moved on in 1978
to the Bluebell, where its owning group merged with those of U-class
No.1618 and S15 No.847 to form the Maunsell Locomotive Society. The blast
pipe and chimney arrangement have been further modified using BR Class 4
components, in the same way as BR had done to some of the class. This has
the advantage of returning the locomotive visually to very close to its
original form. Major restoration work saw it return to steam in 1983,
operating for the following decade in Maunsell livery as No.541.

An overhaul started in July 2011, and the Loco Works Working Group, who started by overhauling the tender, have also assisted with work on the loco itself. It returned to service on 28 April 2015, carrying BR livery as No.30541.

This class of locomotives, of which this was the final locomotive to be
built, were essentially a goods version of the King Arthur class of
express passenger locos (N15). The S15s thus became known as Goods
Arthurs, and like the N15s, their origins went back to the LSWR designs of Robert Urie. Coming to the Bluebell from Barry scrapyard in 1978, its
restoration was not started until the Maunsell Society had completed the
restoration of their Q-class locomotive in 1983.

The boiler received its hydraulic test in 1988, and although it did not
enter service at that time, regulations retrospectively applied mean that
the boiler certificate, valid for ten years, started ticking from that
test. Hence after a relatively short spell (under 5 years) in traffic it was withdrawn for
overhaul. The Maunsell Locomotive Society then carried out as much
preparatory work for the boiler lift as is possible, whilst maintaining the
loco in a presentable condition for display.

The overhaul commenced in earnest in October 2006, with some of funds to finance the overhaul (in the Bluebell's own workshop) already available. The boiler overhaul, which was a major part of the project involving replacing many of the stays including the complex crown stays, was returned to the overhauled frames on 9 August 2013, and it re-entered service on 11 December that year.

Built as the standard loco for the SECR's suburban services, the H-class
were a popular loco in later years for services on rural branch lines in
Sussex, especially after the withdrawal of the LBSCR D3 tanks. This
particular locomotive ended up working the line between East Grinstead and
Three Bridges and was withdrawn when that line was closed in January 1964.
Purchased from BR by the H-Class Trust, it was initially located at
Robertsbridge, but soon found a home at the South Eastern Steam Centre at
Ashford, where the engine appeared at various open days. However, in 1975
the Trustees decided that the locomotive would have much more scope for
running if based on the Bluebell. Since then it has had two periods in
steam. In 2008 ownership was transferred to the Bluebell Railway Trust, which funded an overhaul which started in March 2009, with a return to service, again in full Edwardian SECR livery, in July 2012.

Long the flagship of the Bluebell's fleet, painted blue (Photo:
Right) and named "Bluebell" between 1961 and 1998, this loco was
repainted into SE&CR wartime plain green livery, for the 1999 centenary
of the SE&CR (Photo: right).

The P-class tank locomotives were, in design terms, an updated copy
of the LBSCR Terriers, but, with only eight of them built, made
rather less of a name for themselves. However, with four of the eight
surviving into preservation, they have blossomed, and are now much more
favourably regarded as highly capable little locomotives. Their greater
water capacity and larger cabs give them a slight advantage over the
considerably older Terriers.

An appeal to raise the funds for the overhaul was started towards the end of 2003. The locomotive was partially dismantled, but the overhaul was suspended whilst the workshops concentrated on larger locomotives. Then in September 2009 the loco entered the works and was lifted from its wheels, signifying the re-starting of its overhaul, with the aim of completing to overhaul for the 50th anniversary celebrations in August 2010. This was thwarted by the discovery of the need for additional boiler repairs, and after this additional work, the loco returned to service just in time to put in an appearance at the Branch Line weekend in March 2011.

Lewis Nodes has provided a video clip of Baxter
working the Vintage Goods train in September 1997. The file is a 6MB
Mpeg.
"Baxter" arrived at the Bluebell in 1960 after spending its working life at
the Dorking Greystone Lime Works at Betchworth station. It was only in 1982
that it returned to traffic after a comprehensive overhaul.

"Baxter" runs a very low mileage each year, so, having received a major mechanical overhaul in the early 1980s and a boiler overhaul ten years later, following the expiry of its boiler certificate in July 2000 it was not expected to take much effort to give it another ten-year certificate. However various items have needed rather more work than expected, and the opportunity is also being taken to fit steam heating and vacuum braking equipment for the first time. This work (reported here)
has been undertaken by the volunteer team who undertook the
overhaul of "Fenchurch", and "Captain Baxter" (as it had been named until 1947) returned to service at the 50th Anniversary Gala in August 2010.

The last of the four P-class tank locomotives to have
steamed in preservation, 178 came to the Bluebell in 1969 after industrial
service at Bowaters Paper Mill, where it carried the name "Pioneer II".

Its best chance of restoration was seen to be outside the Bluebell
Railway's direct ownership, due to the railway already having two other Ps,
and so it was sold to Southern Locomotives Ltd, who commenced its
overhaul, at Sheffield Park. However, with the shift in emphasis of that group to become major providers of motive power to the Swanage Railway, it was decided more appropriate to transfer ownership of this 'P' class loco back to the Bluebell. This was achieved in mid 2006, thanks to funding made available by the Bluebell Railway Trust.

The overhaul was undertaken by the Loco Workshop working group, and the loco now runs in full SECR lined green, after just a few weeks initially operating in its industrial guise as "Pioneer II".

Sadly now having a cracked cylinder, the locomotive is capable of little more than light work until it can have replacement cylinders fitter.

Web Page
Built by Howards in 1926, No 957 was used to shunt their agricultural
implement and railway wagon factory sidings in Bedford. The Britannia Iron
& Steel Works Ltd took over the site in 1932 to make pipe fittings and
continued using it until a larger shunting loco was obtained in 1965.
Through the intervention of a local enthusiast the company presented 957 to
the Bluebell Railway where it was used for light shunting until about 1969.
Under the auspicies of the Alf Brown Group an overhaul (details of which are here) was begun in the
1970s at Horsted Keynes which had to include new wheelsets, and it made its debut at the 50th Anniversary Gala in August 2010.

Although nominally operational, at the present time more work is required to complete the restoration of the locomotive.

350HP Diesel shunting locomotive No.09018 was purchased by a consortium of members who have set up a company to manage the loco, which is hired by the Railway as and when it is needed.

The 09 class of diesel-electric shunters were a Southern Region version of the ubiquitous 08 class, geared for slightly higher speeds. D4106 was built at British Railways' Horwich Works on 13 November 1961. It was renumbered as 09018 on 31 December 1973. On the Bluebell it initially retained HNRC orange and grey livery, with the lettering removed, since the priority was the acquisition of a pool of spare parts.

Tony Sullivan's photo shows it on 8 June 2017, soon after being repainted the previous month into its original BR Green livery with wasp stripes, numbered as D4106.

Sentinel/Rolls-Royce/Thomas Hill 4-w Diesel-Hydraulic loco No.10241

Acquired by the Bluebell Railway's C&W department mainly for shunting work around the carriage yard, this loco arrived on 7th May 2010, in working order.

A Sentinel designed loco, this one was built after the company became known as Rolls-Royce and is their No. 10241 of 1966. However, the loco was rebuilt by Thomas Hill (Rotherham) in 1973 (who had by then acquired the Sentinel/Rolls-Royce locomotive business), becoming their No.247V.

The Loco Roster indicates which locos
should be working our trains on what days.

Note: Boiler Certificates. Steam locomotive boilers are
certificated by the Insurance Company's inspector, initially for seven
years from the date of pressure testing after overhaul. The dates given
above assume that a mid-term boiler examination/test allows an extension to
a full ten-year term. At the end of this period, unless a futher short extension is granted, the locos must be taken
out of service for a boiler overhaul including a complete re-tube, and it
is also usual at this time to undertake a full mechanical overhaul.